The New Yorker has published an extensive profile on Jony Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Design. Many newspapers have written up articles on Ive in recent years, but this latest account by Ian Parker is by far the most detailed and (arguably) the most interesting, revealing new anecdotes and tidbits on Apple’s latest products in the process.

The story tracks how Jony arrived at Apple back in the late 90’s, how his relationship with Jobs developed over that period, and how he is adapting to ‘leading’ design in post-Jobs Apple. The piece includes some new details about how the Watch project and the newest iPhones formed, as well as incorporating quotes from Tim Cook, Bob Mansfield, and others.

Other than the notable apps and updates below, developers of Shazam, the “9th most downloaded app of all time,” announced today its song recognition service has been used to identify over 5 billion songs. The five billionth tagged song on Shazam was “Blow Me One Last Kiss” by Pink. Head below for our full list of new apps and updates hitting the App Store today:

Sparrow for Mac version 1.6.3: Sparrow’s Mac App Store app was updated today with a number of performance enhancements and fixes. A full list of what’s new in version 1.6.3 is below:

Spotify version 0.5.4: Spotify received a decent update today that brings the ability to show more stations for iPad users, fixes login issues for Facebook users, and adds stability improvements.

The New Yorker Magazine: Previously only available as an iPad app, The New Yorker is now bringing all of its magazine content to the iPhone with a new universal app available on the App Store now. To celebrate the release of the iPhone version, you will be able to get the Aug. 13 and Aug. 20 issues completely free (old issues are not accessible on the iPhone app). Read more

Next Issue, a subscription-based iPad app for magazines, finally hit the App Store today after first having launched as an Android app on the Google Play store.

The sales pitch is simple: “All the magazines you love. All in one app. All yours for one low price.”

Folks need to visit NextIssue.com to create an account and start a 30-day free trial, and then they can download the app to access a bevy of titles from Conde Nast, News Corp, Hearst, Meredith, Time, and more major publishers. A few of the more enticing magazine titles include: Allure, Better Homes and Gardens, Bon Appétit, ELLE, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Fitness, Fortune, Glamour, GQ, InStyle, People, Popular Mechanics, Real Simple, Self, Southern Living, Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, TIME, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Wired.

Next Issue offers two subscription types: the $10 monthly plan only provides the top magazines, while the $15 monthly plan boasts the entire catalog with weekly selections. A quick gander through the catalog shows enhanced digital magazines, which are tablet-optimized and feature bonus videos, photography and interactive elements.